Sunday

Natalie A. Leek-Nelson

President and CEO, Providence House

Providence House was a small nonprofit provider of crisis nursery care to infants and children at risk for abuse or neglect when Natalie Leek-Nelson became the agency's CEO in 2001.

As an emergency shelter for babies and children, the organization served a critical role within the community. But Leek-Nelson envisioned broader potential. Armed with marketing and business development acumen in both the corporate and nonprofit worlds, Leek-Nelson reframed the agency's mission to provide more meaningful change in the lives of struggling families.

As a result, Providence House under her steadfast leadership has transformed into a nationally recognized model of integrated support that helps stabilize families and empower communities.

“We've focused on a two-generation approach,” Leek-Nelson says.

“We added programming and resources that help children grow and thrive, while assisting parents who are trying to get back on track and care for their children.”

Leek-Nelson worked closely with the organization's board of directors and staff to implement a strategic plan for stabilizing operations and broadening community impact.

The agency diversified revenue streams to avoid continuing to dip into reserves and investments. No longer is Providence House relying mainly on private funding for operational support.

The budget during her tenure has increased from $1 million to $3 million as a result of augmenting private funding with corporate partner programs, foundation support and state government aid.

“Our public sector funding in the last three years has increased from less than 2% to 11%,” she says.

Those efforts have helped Providence House and its 40 staff members enrich services, assist with family intervention and expand its facility to accommodate more families in crisis.

Providence House in 2012 completed a $2.5 million crisis nursery and campus expansion, which doubled from 150 to 300 the number of children served annually.

“She has taken Providence House from a crisis care nursery to a multifaceted facility that effectively serves the community.”

The Ohio City agency enhanced its caregiving capabilities by opening in June a 10-bed, 7,500-square-foot wellness nursery — a quasi-hospital step-down facility for medically fragile children whose families are not immediately able to care for them.

Children who enter Elisabeth's House: The Prentiss Wellness Nursery receive health screenings, medical support and play-based educational programming to help facilitate their development if they've incurred milestone delays as a result of hospitalizations.

“We've done extensive research, and to our best knowledge, this is the first program of its kind in the U.S.,” Leek-Nelson says.

Meanwhile, Providence House has established partnerships with more than 40 community agencies that provide ancillary family support services, from housing and job placement to mental health care.

“We're just about to launch a new client software that helps social workers search and retrieve the most appropriate services for their clients so that the burden isn't on the client,” she says.

Other Ohio cities with higher at-risk populations — among them Cincinnati, Youngstown and Mansfield — are inquiring about the Providence House model.

Leek-Nelson said she plans to devote more of her time in the coming months to figuring out how to translate the archetype into those communities.

“Our mission is to fight to end child abuse and neglect by protecting at-risk children, empowering families in crisis and building safer communities for every child, but that's not limited to our location on West 32nd Street,” she says.

Leek-Nelson has received several awards during her career, including The Community Shares Eleanor Gerson Leadership in Social Justice Award and YWCA Women of Achievement.

The graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Art serves on numerous boards, including Cuyahoga County Defending Childhood, Ohio City Inc. and Ohio City Human Services Dialogues. — Kathy Ames Carr